| Other Reviews | ||
| June 13, 1998: The
Truman Show, film criticism, and real subverstion May 30, 1998: Dark City and The Parkway Theater May 7, 1998: Movie Review--Paulina My Top |
| Latest Review | ||
| All-Time Top (titles link to IMDB. Films subject to change.)  Just added: Dr. Strangelove, or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb How could I have forgotten this one? Kubrick's masterwork is an extremely funny movie about an extremely depressing subject. Originally, Kubrick had meant to craft a drama, but he gave up in the face of the absurdity of the subject matter and developed a black comedy. Probably Peter Sellers' best performance on film. My Life as a Dog While not artistically in the league of the other films on this list, no other film brings forth my emotion like this one. Sweet, touching, sad, and utlimately affirming, it's definitely among the truest films I've seen. Night of the Hunter One of my most depressing filmgoing experiences was seeing this with a group of friends. Inundated with realist film and TeeVee, they were unable to lose themselves in the fantastical allegory. Don't watch this thinking it's another episode of "NYPD Blue." Anyway, for my money, the best film ever made in America. Der Letzte Mann (The Last Laugh) Watching this film, I get drunk observing the obvious ingenuity and play that was at hand in its production. Made in 1924 at Germany's groundbreaking Ufa Studios, this simple tale of a hotel doorman's fall from grace features amazing cinematic exposition. Cinematographer Karl Freund's "unchained camera" allowed F.W. Murnau to tell the story purely visually with such power that only one intertitle is used throughout this entire silent film (and that to introduce an epilogue). Shadow of a Doubt The Master's masterpiece. Watching it on video, I quite enjoyed it. Seeing it in a theater, I was blown out of my chair. The look that Uncle Charlie cuts his niece at the dinner table when he realizes she knows filled me with dread. Touch of Evil Orson Welles' genius is rarely debated. Take Citizen Kane.... please. Touch of Evil is a far more engrossing, thrilling, and ultimately cinematic work of art. Not even Charlton Heston's "Mexican" detective mars this film--Welles' brilliance incorporates this incongruity into the ever bizarre world of the film. Sherlock, Jr. Gotta have a Keaton flick in this list. Almost chose Steamboat Bill, Jr., but decided upon this film because of it's brilliantly self-aware use of film-within-a-film. The cleverness and inventiveness of the gags haven't been matched in over 70 years. And don't tell me you're not amazed at the dive-through-the-costume-box gag. Notorious Nobody better understood the workings of film than Hitchcock. Whereas Shadow of a Doubt is my personal favorite, I feel that Notorious is his best film. The object fetishism (follow the key!), the balcony kiss, the brutally twisted plot, my favorite character actor (Claude Rains), the scintilliating photography, all this combines for a theater-going experience nonpareil. High and Low While his samurai costume dramas earn deservedly high praise, this modern-day detective tale is my favorite Kurosawa movie. Toshiro Mifune's measured intensity (and looking good in a suit!), a brilliant depiction of precise and piecemeal detective legwork, and the stunning use of extra-widescreen, this proves to be one of his most intricate and enthralling films. Also, dig how Western-ized everything is. Duck Soup Perhaps the most blissfully anarchic film ever made. This is the final film of their Paramount era, which I consider far superior to the more polished spectacles they went on to produce at MGM. Anyway, this is the film with the Groucho/Harpo mirror gag. 'Nuff said. Stranger Than Paradise Don't see this on video. I did, and stopped watching it 30 minutes in. I kept hearing how great it was, and thought I'd give it another chance at the local rep theater. Obviously, I'm glad I did. Excruciatingly paced, it's a marvel of minimalist cinema. Video viewing leads too easily to distractions; when enveloped by the big screen, with every gesture amplified, only then can you understand this masterwork. |
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